Support for Roger Goodell slipping as more prominent voices speak up

Before his team took on the Saints Saturday in New Orleans, Patriots president Jonathan Kraft said that there needs to be a "rethinking" of how the NFL deals with, handles and dishes out player punishment.

Kraft said that NFL discipline should be "rethought for the modern era" of the game, i.e. Roger Goodell has abused and misused his power so badly recently that the structure needs to be retooled completely. Of course, the NFLPA conceded that power to the commissioner in the last CBA. It's taken some time to see the true nature of the beast come to light, but it's now out of control beyond anything the league could've imagined a few years ago. And Kraft isn't alone in his standing.

San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York echoed Kraft's message by retweeing a link posted by ESPN's Adam Schefter, which was a story written by Mike Reiss on the subject. It seems York, whom Peter King of Sports Illustrated deems one of the "leaders of tomorrow" (along with Kraft) for the NFL is on board with his thought process.

Below is Kraft's original comment in full:

There probably needs to be a rethinking so that the league office and the Commissioner aren’t put in a spotlight in a way that detracts from the league’s image and the game,” he continued, “even if the league office is doing the right thing, or the wrong thing, or whatever you think. It probably needs to be rethought for the modern era that we’re in and the different things that are coming up that I don’t think people anticipated and how the public wants to see them treated.

There have been plenty of reports that owners such as Baltimore's Steve Biscotti, Indianapolis' Jim Irsay and Jerry Jones down in Dallas have been imploring Goodell to not budge an inch on Brady's suspension. It seems if Jed York had enough clout in the upper-tier of the club, he'd be trying to convince the old guard to back off on their bloodlust.

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